Workforce Coalition

Why this project

The 2027 transit funding fight is not winnable on advocates’ voices alone. It needs the people who employ a third of the Valley and the unions that represent them. Most of those organizations have a quiet, durable interest in better transit — Culinary’s members can’t afford a car for every adult; ATU’s members run RTC; healthcare workers and hospital systems pay the cost when nurses can’t reach shifts; downtown employers compete with the Strip on commute time.

These groups rarely end up in the same room around transit. This project exists to change that — the coalition itself is the outcome.

The natural coalition

• Culinary Workers Union Local 226 — closest constituency to the issue; tens of thousands of members on Strip transit
• ATU Local 1637 — represents RTC operators; immediate stake in service levels
• Healthcare workers along Maryland Parkway — UMC, Sunrise Hospital, Valley Health System staff who’ll ride the BRT
• Strip employer associations and downtown property owners — interested in commute time, parking, and BRT-corridor real estate

Approach

• Every conversation starts from shared interest: members, employees, and customers all benefit from working transit
• Begin where the stake is most direct — the unions whose members ride and operate the system
• Engage healthcare workers along the Maryland Parkway corridor as the BRT opens in Fall 2026
• Grow from there to the employers and property owners whose businesses run on the same corridors
• Coordinate language so coalition members speak with one ask in 2027